PETA Goes After Michelle Obama on Easter Egg Roll

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama cheer on children taking part in an egg-rolling race as part of the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House April 1, 2013.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, more fondly known as PETA, is targeting first lady Michelle Obama in a new YouTube video, pleading with her to end the tradition of using real eggs in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

In the 80-second video, titled “Michelle Obama, We Need to Talk!” three preteen girls tell the first lady how “disappointed” they are with the use of real eggs and how much “better than this” she is.

“How many chickens have to spend their whole lives in a cage just to lay those eggs?” one of the girls asks.

“Just because all the other first ladies have done it doesn’t mean you have to. If all the other first ladies jumped off a bridge, would you?” the children quip in the video, with lots of sighs and headshakes.

The right and reusable path to go, the three offer, would be to use plastic eggs.

“I'm writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 3 million members and supporters to urge you, with all due respect, to use reusable plastic or ceramic eggs instead of hard-boiled chicken eggs at the White House Easter Egg Roll,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote in the letter.

“For chickens on egg factory farms, Easter is not a time of renewal or joy. It can take up to 34 hours in typically hellish conditions for a hen to produce just one of the thousands of eggs slated to be used at the Easter Egg Roll,” Newkirk added, before going on to say that the first lady was working directly against her own political viewpoints. “Encouraging the consumption of cruelly sourced, unhealthy eggs is inconsistent with the goals of the ‘Let's Move!’ initiative. Eggs are laden with saturated animal fat and cholesterol, which are primary contributors to some of our nation's top killers, including heart disease and strokes. One single large egg contains more cholesterol than two Big Mac sandwiches do. It's the wrong message to send to children.”